New York Times takes an in-depth look at California’s complex plan for high-speed rail… …And talks to DOT Secretary Ray LaHood about helping Americans drive less and creating livable communities. Domestic and international flights dropped by 9.1 percent from March 2008 to March 2009. (Streetsblog SF) Officials in Los Angeles County consider implementing congestion pricing [...]

Financial crisis and federal stimulus have slowed the push to privatize infrastructure. (New York Times) A new study looks how to address equity concerns in congestion pricing. (Environmental Defense Fund) Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm suggests that old car factories to be retooled to make trains, while the state cuts 137 transportation projects because of lack [...]

When filmmakers envision the future of our transportation system, they often seem to come up with one enduring image — millions of layers of flying cars breezing effortlessly through impossibly dense cities, surrounded by mile-high skyscrapers. There’s a good chance the future may not look quite so, well, futuristic. But that doesn’t mean that advanced computer technology — namely, wireless networks known as Intelligent Transportation Systems that feed through our transportation infrastructure — won’t have a huge role to play in helping move people and goods safer, more efficiently, and with less pollution in the 21st Century.

New York’s overburdened, financially-strapped Metropolitan Transportation Authority is struggling to come up with the cash necessary to support its ridership base, and a commission led by former MTA chair Richard Ravitch is looking all options available for attacking the problem. (Streetsblog — Ben Fried)

A former transportation commissioner for New York City calls for an alternative route for congestion pricing — selling the Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridges to the Metropolitan Transit Authority and generating revenue through tolling. (New York Times — William Neuman)

Countering claims by some opponents of congestion pricing that it places a disproportionally large burden on low-income people, two academics from the University of Southern California contend that using sales taxes to pay for transportation projects is a more regressive funding method. (Los Angeles Times — Steve Hymon)